Michael Snow

On behalf of the American Hardwood Export Council, it is with great pleasure that I welcome all of you to the AHEC 19th SEA & GRCH Convention in historic Tianjin, the largest coastal city in northern China. We have worked hard to revamp and update the agenda, and hope you will find the increased focus on business-to-business networking to be a particularly useful addition.

The twelve months that have past since we last met in Harbin have seen record levels of US hardwood exports, in large part driven by the rapidly growing economies of Asia. Exports of American hardwood lumber alone increased by more than 35% to China in 2013, as well as an additional 10% to Southeast Asia. China solidified its position as the single largest market for our products and one of the world economy’s great engines of growth.  This Convention is designed to help further strengthen these bonds, as our aim is not only to introduce US exporters to Asian importers, but to also help foster the relationships between Asian end users and specifiers and the local wood processing industry and distributors of American hardwoods.

I sincerely hope that you find this Convention to be both timely and useful, and welcome any feedback you have on how we can make this event even more valuable for you. I also look forward to working with all of you toward creating an even closer bond between the US hardwood industry and Asia’s architectural, design and manufacturing industries. Finally, I would also like to take this opportunity to thank our friends in the Tianjin Furniture Trade Association for their help and support in organizing this event.